When it comes to choosing a print vendor, most distributors focus on product quality, pricing, and service. These are all critical, but there’s another factor that can have just as much impact on your profitability and customer satisfaction: where your vendor’s production plants are located.
In an industry where speed, accuracy, and logistics can make or break a job, your vendor’s manufacturing footprint can make the difference between winning a customer and losing one.
The Geography of Profitability
Let’s face it, shipping costs aren’t getting cheaper, and customer expectations aren’t slowing down. If your vendor’s only plant is halfway across the country, you’re at the mercy of longer transit times, higher freight bills, and more room for delays.
But when your vendor has production facilities strategically located near your customer base, everything becomes more efficient:
- Transit times shrink
- Shipping costs drop
- Turnaround speeds improve
- Rush jobs become more doable
Those operational improvements translate directly to a competitive edge.
What a Strategic Footprint Looks Like
What might think look like in real life? Wise, for example, offers production plants in Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Indiana. This footprint covers a wide swath of the Eastern U.S., from New England down to the Southeast and into the Midwest. For distributors serving customers in these areas, this setup offers tangible benefits.
Have a financial client in Boston? His forms will get there faster shipping from our Maine facility than from our Pennsylvania one. Labeling requirements changed and your food packaging client needs cover-up labels by next week? Our South Carolina plant might be able to get it there even sooner.
The result? Less freight. Faster delivery. Happier customers.
It’s Not Just About Distance. It’s About Flexibility
Distributors also benefit from redundancy and production flexibility. If one plant is near capacity or experiencing delays, the job can be rerouted to another facility without skipping a beat. That kind of agility is difficult to pull off with a single-location vendor.
In industries where deadlines are tight—financial statements, compliance forms, prime and durable labels—this kind of operational flexibility has real-world implications.
What to Look for in a Vendor’s Location Strategy
Next time you are evaluating your print vendors, remember that it’s a lot like real estate: location, location, location! Ask questions like:
- How close are your plants to my core customer base?
- Can you fulfill from multiple locations depending on the order?
- How do you handle regional surges or weather-related disruptions?
Don’t just settle for a vendor that checks the box on product specs and pricing. Look at their logistics infrastructure. Their plant locations might just be the quiet advantage that helps you compete more effectively—and profitably.
Bob Saunders is VP Sales of Wise, Alpharetta, GA. Wise manufacturers industrial/prime labels and tags, traditional forms, and digitally printed products and services for resale only. For more information, visit www.wbf.com or email Bob at [email protected].
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